Will This Ratings Upgrade Help iGATE (IGTE) Stock Today?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- iGATE Corp. (IGTE) was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" at Jefferies Group (JEF) this morning.

The firm said it raised its rating on the company, which provides integrated end-to-end offshore centric information technology operating solutions and services, based on a valuation call and the company's accelerating growth.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates IGATE CORP as a Buy with a ratings score of B. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate IGATE CORP (IGTE) a BUY. This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance, reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 16.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 9.9%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.

Compared to its closing price of one year ago, IGTE's share price has jumped by 124.03%, exceeding the performance of the broader market during that same time frame. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, IGTE should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.

Net operating cash flow has increased to $17.17 million or 29.20% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -19.48%.

The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the IT Services industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, IGATE CORP has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has exceeded that of the S&P 500.